I’ve been taking Ari Whitten’s excellent Energy Blueprint course (go here for the free Masterclass), and one of the suggestions for balancing circadian rhythms and getting better sleep is to use incandescent light bulbs with more of the warmer light frequency spectrum.

Blue and green light frequencies shut down melatonin, that crucial hormone that not only signals the body to get good sleep, but is the most powerful antioxidant on the planet.

Well, it turns out that getting regular, old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs is not so easy.

California actually bans the sale of them (since 2018).  It’s unclear whether stores in other states will continue to stock them as of January 1, 2020. New efficiency standards that would have, in essence, phased out incandescent light bulbs were set to go into effect then, but those restrictions were weakened in Sept. 2019. This article gives a good explanation of the latest on the status of the EISA (Energy Independence and Security Act). I am still hearing from our local hardware stores that they will not be carrying the regular incandescent light bulbs, but that may change. I’ve had trouble finding them on Amazon.

The recent darling of the lighting industry is the LED bulb. More energy efficient, and supposedly longer lasting (I have grave doubts about that, see the comments on the above link), but …  there is a dark side, as this Scientific American article points out. Apparently there are heavy metals such as lead, nickel and copper in the LED bulbs. Compact fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury. If you break either kind, you’re supposed to wear rubber gloves, a face mask, and throw away the broom you use to sweep it up!

The main reason I wanted to stick with the older incandescent bulbs was because I want to cut down on exposure to blue and green light at night. My research uncovered that the lower the light is on the Kelvin scale, the less blue light there is. The old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs actually have fire in them, as you can see from the picture, and the orange-yellow spectrum actually helps the body move into rest mode.

Upshot: the “daylight” LED lights would be good for when you want to “wake up,” the “soft white” LED are better for places like the bedroom. Of course, all of us move throughout all our rooms throughout the day, so I guess the best alternative is to wear blue- and green-blocking glasses after sundown, such as Swannies or, even better, Safety Blue, because those also block green light, which interferes with melatonin as well. (Plus, what I like about the Safety Blue, is that they make a kind that can fit over prescription glasses. Just be sure when you order that you get the “fit over” kind. I mistakenly ordered the wrong ones at first, and got a chance to sample their customer service. Which was very good. If you want to save 17%, use coupon code EBLE2020 at checkout.) According to energy expert Ari Whitten, these are the only glasses on the market that also block green light.

CC BY by Natalia Medd

It’s not only the lighting in our homes that are a concern.  You may have to wear your blue-blocking glasses when you go outside at night, if your community has solid-state LED street lights, that intense blue light can also disrupt circadian rhythms. I think also some cars also use those intense blue LED lights. (They hurt my eyes!)

The bottom line, for me, is to get whatever light bulbs I can that are on the warmer side of the Kelvin scale. The labels should tell you. You want as “warm,” i.e. as low on the Kelvin scale, as possible, if you want to to block blue and green light. In my opinion, we get enough blue light from screens. At night I wear my blue and green-blocking glasses just to be safe, even though I have the warmer bulbs in most places in my home.

I sigh over all this. It seems the toxins are everywhere in our modern world. You just have to do the best you can, control what you can, and do whatever you can to keep your immune system strong and circadian rhythms as optimized as possible. I’m learning so much about how all these things interact, and will continue to share as I learn.

Important: Don’t let fear overtake you. A body at peace is a body that can heal or overcome just about everything. Heal the heart issues, do what you can to lessen the toxic load, and trust that God can and will protect you from the forces you can’t control. That’s where I find my peace, and I know you can, too.

And if you need some help finding what those heart issues are, consider getting some coaching at HealingCodesCoaching.com.

Update, 5/15/2021: I just discovered, through a neighbor on my local Nextdoor chat group, that the radiofrequency of certain kinds of LED light bulbs can interfere with the signals in your garage door remote. Further proof that LED light bulbs emit EMF (electromagnetic frequencies).

You apparently can get special LED lights for garage door openers, at a hardware store (you may have to ask), or Amazon.

The description for one of the products specifically says: “Eliminates Or Reduces Opener Remote Interference: Specifically designed for garage door openers and does not limit range of remotes like common LED and CFL bulbs.”

Who knew? Now you do.